In what stakeholders may call a good first step forward, Congress has allocated additional funds for control measures of wild horse and burro populations. Still, the funding is still below the funding level originally requested by stakeholders.
In order to avoid a government shutdown, Congress needed to pass an omnibus appropriations package to fund the rest of the fiscal year by Dec. 20. Two “minibuses” have been tied up in Congress, but finally made their way back to the House of Representatives and Senate the week of the deadline. Together, the two bills represent $1.73 trillion worth of funding.
One of the minibuses, H.R. 1865, included domestic spending measures, including $21 million in appropriations to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for wild horse and burro management.
The bill passed through the House Dec. 17, approved by the Senate Dec. 19, and headed to President Donald Trump’s desk, where he was expected to sign it before the continuing resolution expired Dec. 20 at midnight.
The House of Representatives originally passed the bill this summer to appropriate an additional $6 million for horse and burro management over fiscal year 2019 enacted levels. The bill then headed to the Senate in late October, where they decided an additional $35 million should be appropriated to the BLM.
“It does allocate additional funds, not quite at the level originally requested, but it is a positive step in the right direction.”
Tanner Beymer, associate director of government affairs for National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, told WLJ the final funding of $21 million was likely a halfway-point compromise between the two chambers. Beymer stressed this is a significant step in the right direction, but still under the original request of $50 million from stakeholders.
“At some point in the near future, in the next fiscal year or the ones shortly following, we need to see an aggressive ramp up of funding in order to get gathers and fertility control programs on the ground and on the scale actually needed to curb population growth,” Beymer said.
Implementing funding
The BLM estimates it costs upwards of $81 million a year to manage the excess wild horse and burro populations, and current population levels are about three times greater than what the appropriate management level is estimated to be. A little over $80 million was appropriated to the BLM for control measures in fiscal year 2019.
The language of the appropriations bill reads the additional $21 million in funding will not be available for distribution until BLM submits a comprehensive and detailed plan of how funds will be used, in compliance with the comprehensive Animal Welfare Act that is already in existence within BLM policies.
“This is a result that we are saying is a win,” Beymer said. “It does allocate additional funds, not quite at the level originally requested, but it is a positive step in the right direction. However, there is a lot more we need to be doing to ensure this is successful in the course of the next decade.” — Anna Miller, WLJ editor
